The South Asian Studies Council presents
Dinesha Samararatne:
“Constitutionalism, State Capture and Rescue: What may we learn from Sri Lanka?”
Sri Lanka’s recent experiences with constitutional democracy reveal the ways in which the state may be captured by state actors. A crisis of elected representation becomes the launch pad for systematically eroding the idea of a state. In this context, the deliberate subversion of the Constitution, constitutional amendments and constitutional institutions may be observed. Interestingly, it is in this very context that demands for more effective and meaningful representation as well as for constitutional governance emerge. The intense political and constitutional developments of the 21st century that unfolded in Sri Lanka reveal the complex and dynamic ways in which these demands emerge, are revived, sustained and sometimes, make a meaningful impact. Drawing from these experiences, this talk will explore the concept of state capture and its relationship to constitutional governance. The idea of state rescue will be invoked to interpret the attempts to address this type of state capture.